Abstract - files.eric.ed.gov

Building Community Through Mentoring Adult Learners Jarrad Plante & Joshua Truitt University of Central Florida

Abstract The Volunteer UCF Community Connectors and Community Builders Program provides a connection between students and their community. The goal is to develop meaningful service opportunities for UCF students that contribute measurable results and systemic change through capacity building among adult learners. The ongoing, sustainable service experience for students may take place in the forms of internships, service-learning courses, and intrinsically motivated volunteer opportunities. This service opportunity is reflected in The Golden Circle illustration where we began with the "why ? " to create sustainable community impact, and worked our way out to the "how ? " utilizing community builders and community partners, and finally the "what ? " to provide skilled volunteers seeking service-learning and intrinsic volunteerism. The Adult Literacy League, as a community partner, requires building capacity to serve adult learners. These proceedings will highlight synergy between a university-based community service program and a partnering community agency serving adult learners.

Key Terms and Definitions

Capacity Building:

Provides a basis for a comprehensive approach toward democratization (Dryzek, 2008).

Community Engagement:

Community engagement is described as the collaboration "between higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity" (Driscoll, 2009, p.6).

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Golden Circle:

The Golden Circle is a type of process model developed by Simon Sinek and is the result of research into the success of the world's most influential companies and its leaders. When asked why their consumers choose their company, the strategic leaders explained that they led with the "why" question. They wanted to know what drove their customers to their business rather than how to make a profit. This led to the development of a three-circle model called The Golden Circle (Sinek, 2009).

Service-Learning (SL):

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), service-learning combines serving the community and student learning in a way that improves both the community and the student. Service-learning involves active student participation, fosters civic responsibility, and integrates an educational or academic component ("Principles and Concepts of SL and CBR," n.d.). Similar to general community service, servicelearning may be voluntary or mandatory where service activities can take place within or outside the school. Service-learning also draws lessons from critical analysis activities like classroom presentations, direct writing and group discussion, in addition to organized thoughtful reflection (Spring, Grimm, & Dietz, 2008).

Background

Traditional mentoring has historically been defined as a mentee entering into a supporting and unidirectional relationship "in which the mentee is the subservient role, molded by someone of greater age, wisdom, or position, who appears capable and complete" (Kochan & Trimble, 2000, p. 21). Thirty years of studies on mentoring provide guidance to bring about positive outcomes for mentees when the mentor promotes behaviors such as building trust with their mentee, offering acceptance, open communication, and respecting mutuality (Crosby, 1999). This case study investigates the relationship between a seasoned organization, the Adult Literacy League, and

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a new initiative, Volunteer UCF's Community Connector program. This case study challenges mainstream literature to answer a crucial question, how do traditional college-age students perceive the value of their role in mentoring adult learners?

Initiating and maintaining mentoring and tutoring opportunities for adult learners takes leadership and collaboration. According to Rice (2015), Collaborative Leadership provides a leadership paradigm that has the capacity to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to solve the complex challenges that adult education, as well as many other organizations, face today" (p. 406). Rubin (2009) defines collaboration as a "purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to achieve shared or overlapping objectives" (p. 2).

According to Hulquist (2015), "Meeting the needs of the adult student population in today's evolving global economy is a challenge being addressed by colleges and universities across the country" (p. 461). Wisseman and Verloop (2009) forecast the next development in higher education will be comprised of an increase of collaborative efforts with the surrounding community (Hultquist, 2015). This includes mentoring the adult learner. The purpose of these proceedings is three-fold; (1) The development of the UCF program based on the Golden Circle model, (2) The value of the university/community agency partnership to sustainable volunteerism, and (3) the role of the non-traditional ages in the mentor/mentee relationship. Two measures of college experience are represented by the amount of time and energy students put into their coursework and other educational opportunities, and an institution's use of resources to create opportunities for student learning and involvement (Truitt, 2013).

These opportunities include mentoring opportunities. According to Astin (1999), involvement is an asset of energy yielding positive student outcomes. Student involvement happens along a continuum and is measured both qualitatively and quantitatively. Student learning and development are openly associated with the quantity and quality of student involvement. Additionally, the effectiveness of educational policy and practice is reflected by the

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capacity building of a practice or policy to increase student involvement (Astin, 1999). "Besides enrolling for classes, getting involved is the single most important thing one can do as a student..." (Plante, Currie, & Olson, 2014, p. 89). Community engagement is one example of involvement.

Community engagement is described as the collaboration "between higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity" (Driscoll, 2009, p. 6). Many institutions of higher education have an office or center of community engagement. At the University of Central Florida, Volunteer UCF (VUCF) is an internally funded Student Government Association agency that is housed within the Office of Student Involvement. "It is the mission of Volunteer UCF to promote civic engagement and education on various social issues to the UCF student body" (Plante, Currie, & Olson, 2014, p. 90).

The Volunteer UCF board of directors includes a Student Director, Assistant Student Director, a Marketing team, and social topic directors. Student leaders ? ranging from traditional to transfer and nontraditional to adult learners, become expert educators in one of twelve social topics: Animal Awareness, Arts & Recreation, Civic Engagement, Different Abilities, Education & Literacy, Elderly & Veterans Awareness, Environment, Health, Humanitarian Relief, Hunger & Homelessness, Relationship Violence Awareness, and Youth & Mentoring. Student leaders work with their committee members to coordinate and implement episodic volunteer and educational events around their social topic to engage the student body and larger community.

The Alternative Break Program falls under VUCF where coordinators plan week-long service events based on the social topics and takes place during winter and spring breaks. Some VUCF large-scale signature service events include Knights Give Back, UCF's largest day of service ? attracting over 1,500 students and alumni to serve the Central Florida community; Day and Knight of Service, Volunteer UCF's 24-hour service event to serve the region; and the Volunteer Summit, VUCF's largest educational event where

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nonprofit organizations promote their agency to the student body with the anticipation that those who are interested will volunteer with them. Approximately 6,500 student volunteers participated in over 400 service and educational events serving more than 35,000 hours and supplementing their budget by more than $13,000 in fundraising, in-kind donations, and minigrant awards during the 2015-2016 academic year.

Nonprofit leaders across the region often cite the need for consistent volunteers. This need led Volunteer UCF to use the Golden Circle model to pilot a new program, Volunteer UCF's Community Connector and Community Builder Program. Community Connectors pair students' interests, social topic interest, and availability via an online survey and follow-up consultation, with nonprofits and ongoing service opportunities to make a larger impact.

Golden Circle Model

The Golden Circle is a process model developed by Simon Sinek (2009) ? and is the result of research into the success of the world's most influential companies and its leaders. It is a process by which one begins with the "why" then works toward the "how" and finally the "what." For example, when asked why their consumers choose their company, the strategic leaders explained that they led with the "why" question. They wanted to understand why their customers choose their company over competitors, rather than simply asking how to make a profit. This led to the development of a threecircle model called The Golden Circle (Sinek, 2009).

The Golden Circle consists of 3 concentric circles. The innermost circle is the why, the middle circle is the how, and the outermost circle is the what. The Why describes the drive, belief, and inspiration that organizations possess and, regardless of size, communicate from the inside. The How describes the process by which the organization does what it does, the explanation for why their product or service is better or different when compared to another's. The What is the product and/or service the organization provides to its clientele. Most organizations focus on the "what" and move inward toward the core;

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however, when using the Golden Circle, the effective leaders begin with the "why" and move outward (Sinek, 2009). This is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Simon Sinek's (2009) Golden Circle

From Theory to Practice Building strong communities requires building capacity. Volunteer UCF launched its Community Connector program during the 2015 academic year to match college students to partners in the local community. The purpose of the Volunteer UCF Community Connectors and Community Builders program is to provide a connection between students and their community. The goal is to develop meaningful service opportunities for UCF students that contribute to measurable results and systemic change through capacity building in community agencies. The Adult Literacy League is the example used in this case study. The ongoing, sustainable service experience for students may take place in the forms of internships, service-learning courses, and intrinsically motivated volunteering opportunities. The experiences are reflected in The Golden Circle illustration where we began with the "why" (to create sustainable community impact), and worked our way out to the "how" (utilizing community builders and community partners), and finally the "what" (to provide skilled volunteers who are looking for opportunities in servicelearning courses, internship, and intrinsic volunteerism).

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The Community Connector program utilized three Federal Work Study students to market the program to Volunteer UCF's most frequented nonprofit organizations. These nonprofits were invited to conversations about establishing deeper, more meaningful service and project leadership opportunities for students, their agency, and the larger community. Twenty nonprofit organizations completed applications to become resources for students looking to participate in long-term service. Following conversations with nonprofits, the community connectors began marketing the program and encouraged those seeking ongoing volunteerism opportunities to reach out to a community connector and begin the process.

After making contact with a community connector, the student seeking volunteer opportunities, a.k.a. the community builder, takes a volunteer interest survey. Once complete, a face-to-face meeting takes place between the community connector and the community builder to review the volunteer interest survey. Based on the volunteer's schedule, skill set(s), and social topic interest(s), the community connector makes recommendations of partner organizations for the community builder to explore. Once a partner is decided upon, the community connector `connects' the community builder and nonprofit agency via email and the community builder begins serving at the organization. In this case study, the Community Connectors are traditional undergraduates who are Federal Work Study students from UCF; the location is the Adult Literacy League, and the Community Builder is a graduate student from UCF.

Adult Literacy League: A Case Study

The Adult Literacy League was one of the first organizations to complete the Community Connectors application and was the first partner to receive a community builder. This particular community partner requires building capacity of their mission to serve adult learners. The Adult Literacy League assists adults seeking employment, economic self-sufficiency, driver's license, and citizenship. The League also educates adults in reading, writing, math, spelling, and computer skills. There is a lab for students to prepare for

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their GED, and participate in Adult Basic Education (ABE) courses. Additionally, Adult Literacy League works with non-native students within the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. Adult learners from the Adult Literacy League often take college courses at higher education institutions such as UCF.

Carina (her real name being de-identified), a graduate student in Public Administration at UCF, was the first community builder to be matched to an organization. With her availability, enthusiasm for mentoring adult learners, and skill sets such as tutoring and mentoring non-native students, she was matched with the Adult Literacy League. After on-site orientation, Carina was paired with a family from Egypt to begin tutoring the mother in English in order to prepare her for employment. Carina's semester-long service project began in January 2016.

About half-way through her tutoring experience with the Adult Literacy League, further strategic dialogue took place to get a sense of how the program was progressing. Carina's service to the Adult Literacy League was used as a case study for program evaluation with the Volunteer UCF Community Connector and Community Builder Program. Several themes were discovered including involvement, tutor experience, lessons learned, and recommendations with the information being illustrated in several tables.

When asked the reasons for becoming involved in the VUCF Community Connector program, Carina explained that her goal was to volunteer for a service project and give back to the Central Florida community. This information can be found in Table 1.

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